Tencent paid $330m for 40% share in Epic Games

Latest financials reveal price of investment in Unreal Engine maker

Chinese internet company Tencent paid $330 million for a 40 per cent stake in Unreal Engine maker Epic Games, according to the firm's latest financial report.

The 'minority' investment was originally announced last June, with Tencent appointing two representatives to the Epic board. At the time the value of the deal was not disclosed.

"In June 2012, Tencent made a minority investment in Epic Games, purchasing approximately 48.4 percent of outstanding shares of Epic stock, equating to 40 percent of total Epic capital inclusive of both stock and employee stock options," Tim Sweeney, Epic founder, told Polygon.

"As part of the investment, two Tencent representatives joined Epic's board of directors, in addition to the three directors and two observers appointed by Epic. We're thrilled to have a world-leading partner in Tencent, who gives Epic unique access to the Chinese market as we head into the next chapter of our 21-year history as a leading independent developer."

I think it had a lot to do with Blezinski and other shareholding crew walking. They all got paid, so...

Anyway, this was a really great move for Tencent. EA, Activision or pretty much any large multi-project publisher would benefit from this. Yes, Epic's games are awesome and their business looks good, but their technology is an amazing acquisition for a publisher. Their tools allow for easy, standardized implementation of so many things. Now Tencent is presumably in a position to have those tools adapted by those most qualified to suit whatever Tencent's needs are!

Not to mention that Tencent probably wants to make a F2P Gears of War clone that doesn't suck.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Michael Bennett on 23rd March 2013 10:41pm